


You're Going To Be Okay

by RichardGraysonPercyJackson



Series: The Acrobat and The Mercenary [6]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Crying, Exhaustion, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Mirakuru Slade Wilson, Panic Attacks, Tears, inhibitor collar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 01:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18714127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RichardGraysonPercyJackson/pseuds/RichardGraysonPercyJackson
Summary: “Do you know how long you’ve been here?”Slade's been tortured for the last several hours.Or...has it been days? Weeks? He's not...entirely sure.Good thing he has a boyfriend to come rushing in to save him.Not that he needs saving, of course. But it's always nice to have a hot acrobat in spandex ready to come to the rescue





	You're Going To Be Okay

**Author's Note:**

> This was way longer than I thought it was going to be (so was the summary) so I hope you all enjoy!!!

“Do you know how long you’ve been here?”

Slade kept his expression straight, giving nothing away even as his body pulsed in pain, darkness encroaching on the edge of his vision.

“You gotta understand,” he captor said, stalking around where Slade was strung from his wrists in the center of the warehouse, blood dripping from his bare feet and collar tight around his throat, blocking his healing factor. “We just wanted your blood, you know? I’ve been curious about Mirakuru for a  _ long  _ time and since you're the only survivor of the experiments, well…” he shrugged. “There was no one else to go to.”

“You have my blood now,” Slade said calmly, voice hoarse and nearly gone from the acid they’d poured down his throat several days earlier. They had removed the collar at some point, only long enough to allow his throat to heal before they returned it to its place around his neck. “Are we done?”

“Yes,” his captor replied with a smile. 

“I presume you’ll be letting me go?” Slade asked. In any other circumstance, he would have flexed his fingers. But he was almost certain they were broken, though he would admit that his memory had gone fuzzy several days earlier.

He thought it was days.

“Oh no,” his captor replied, shaking his head. “Nah, we can’t have you hunting us down. So we’re just going to leave you here.” he chuckled. “Hey. Maybe you’ll get lucky and  _ Night-brat  _ will hunt you down.”

That was one thing that had been weighing on Slade’s mind since the beginning. Dick was  _ obsessive  _ about Slade’s location at the worst of times. He’d called Slade more than once in the middle of a panic attack, terrified because he woke up in the middle of the night and didn’t know where Slade was, even though they lived alone.

Slade couldn’t imagine Dick had been handling this distance well.

“How long have I been here?” Slade asked. “I would presume only a few hours since Nightwing hasn’t found us yet.”

“It’s been about two weeks,” his captor admitted with a grin. “And yeah, the bat-brat hasn’t found us cause my men have been keeping him  _ very  _ busy.”

“Oh yeah,” another man said, nodding. “He’s been off his game, too. Angry. Shaking.”

“Poor baby,” the captor mocked. “He must be feeling like a pretty big failure for not being able to find someone. I bet he just  _ knows  _ you’re being tortured, too.”

At that, hearing that Dick had been both enraged and probably in the middle of a constant panic attack, Slade made a mental note to spend a month with Dick at all times, soothing the acrobat of the nightmares he  _ knew  _ would come from this ordeal.

“So what then?” Slade rasped. “You’re going to tell him I’m here? Or are you going to leave me to die and hint to him where I am and hope he finds me?”

“That second option seems more entertaining,” the captor said with a grin. “I think we’ll go with that.” he turned to leave, only to instantly snap his fingers and turn back around, pulling a syringe out of his jacket and jamming the needle under Slade’s skin.

“Just a little bit of a drug to keep you disoriented,” he said with a grin, tossing the empty syringe aside. “We wouldn’t want to make the job too easy for Nightwing, would we? Have a good nap.”

Slade blacked out before they left the warehouse.

 

………..

 

Cold, shaking, trembling hands on his face drew Slade back to dizzy consciousness.

“Babe? Can you hear me? I really need you to answer me, Slade. Okay.” a hand through his hair, catching on knots and dried blood. “Can you open your eye for me, baby?”

Slade groaned, throat protesting as he forced his eye to open. It didn’t focus and all he saw was black and blue. He heard a weak laugh.

“Hey baby,” Dick whispered, stroking his thumbs over Slade’s cheek. “I was really worried. Here, I’m gonna get you down okay? Then we can get you to the apartment and get this collar off of you and make you better, okay?”

Dick’s hands were still trembling and he knew as soon as Slade was stable, he was going to break down sobbing, but for right now he forced himself to focus. Slade must not have been as stable as Dick was hoping because as soon as he got the chains off of Slade’s wrists, the mercenary went down and took them both to the ground.

“Okay, alright,” Dick whispered as he slid out from under Slade. “Everything’s going to be okay. We’re going to get back to the apartment and everything’s going to be okay, alright?”

Dick was on the brink of panicking, that much Slade could tell from how little he was actually processing. The kid’s trembling had increased as he slung one of Slade’s arms over both of his shoulders, wrapping his arm around Slade’s waist.

He got them to their feet but Dick nearly went down right away under Slade’s weight and height. The acrobat stumbled, gasping quietly as his legs struggled to support Slade.

“It’s going to be okay,” Dick kept assuring as he slowly but surely stumbled towards the door of the warehouse. Even five steps in and Slade knew they weren’t going to make it before Dick collapsed. Knowing the kid, he’d hardly slept in the two weeks Slade was missing. “Okay? Everything’s going to be okay.”

Slade really hated that he made Dick’s job harder by passing out.

 

………….

 

Dick was in agony, getting Slade into the elevator and up to the mercenary's apartment without anyone noticing.

“You’re okay,” he kept whispering as he dragged Slade through the apartment and to the bedroom, laying Slade down as carefully as possible. As soon as the mercenary's weight was out of his arms, Dick nearly collapsed from pure exhaustion. But he couldn't, not yet. Slade needed help.

It was as he was searching through the bathroom for towels, washcloths, and a first aid kit that Dick began wishing he could tell  _ someone  _ about his and Slade’s relationship. It would really have helped in not only finding the mercenary but having another set of hands to help would have been really nice too.

“But it’s just me,” Dick whispered as he angrily ripped his mask and gloves off. He didn’t have time to take the suit off because for all he knew, Slade was dying. He  _ had  _ to get that collar off.

It took longer than he’d hoped to clean up the hundreds of cuts that littered Slade’s arms and bare torso and by the time Dick managed to clean and bandage him, washing Slade’s hair and changing him into a t-shirt and sweatpants, darkness was closing in on the sides of Dick’s vision.

But he forced it back as he reached into his belt for a small EMP, flipping it on and letting out a quiet groan of relief when the collar powered down. As soon as he could, Dick pulled the inhibitor collar off and threw it as far away as possible, wincing when it hit the wall but not having enough strength to care enough.

As soon as it had powered down, he had seen instant signs of Slade healing and let out a quiet breath of relief.

Then promptly fell backwards off of the bed into unconsciousness.

 

………..

 

Slade ached in a way he hadn’t in  _ years _ . Decades, really. Since before the mirakuru took effect, probably. He blinked his eye open and expected to be met with the warehouse since that was where his memory stopped. So he was very surprised to see the ceiling of his current safehouse. Instead of moving instantly, he took a couple of moments to breathe and assess himself. Most of the injuries he remembered having felt none existent and the only thing that lingered was exhaustion.

Taking a couple more moments to get his head on straight, Slade slowly sat up. The bedroom door was cracked but there were no sounds coming from the other side. Either way, Slade had a feeling in the back of his head that he wasn’t alone.

He stood, stepping carefully as he crept towards the door. He took a moment to ready himself for a potential fight before he pushed the door open.

“Oh thank fuck. You’re alive.”

Dick looked  _ horrible _ . His hair was wild and unbrushed, greasy in a way that said he hadn’t showered in awhile. Dark bags lived under his eyes and he looked as white as the shirt of Slade’s that he was drowning in.

Slade blinked, noting how Dick was shaking as the acrobat moved across the living room to pull Slade into a tight hug.

“Don’t ever do that again,” Dick muttered and Slade noticed how the kid seemed to sway in place and didn’t seem to be able to focus on Slade who was right in front of him. “You  _ scared  _ me.”

“I won’t try to,” Slade said, placing his hands on Dick’s sholuders. “We should sit down. You don’t look well. When was the last time you slept?”

Dick shook his head. “I had to make sure you didn’t die,” he replied. “You st-” he blinked rapidly, swaying and nearly collapsing before he reached up to grip Slade’s shirt. He stared blankly at Slade’s chest before continuing in a mumble. “You stopped breathing,” he whispered weakly.

“Kid,” Slade pressed. “When was the last time you  _ ate _ ?”

He knew the answer before Dick even replied. “You were more important.”

“Kid, I’m not dying for a long time,” Slade told him as he carefully lifted Dick into his arms, hating how the acrobat went limp instantly. “But you’re on the road to an early grave.”

Dick gave a tired, delirious giggle as Slade set him on the bed, pulling the sheets around him.

“Isn’t everyone in my family?” he asked, grinning up at Slade. The expression fell quickly to be replaced with tears. “I couldn’t lose you.”

“You didn’t,” Slade assured him, sitting on the edge of the bed, pressing a kiss to Dick’s forehead, tucking the acrobat’s hair behind his ear. “Now, you’re going to get some rest. When you wake up, you’re going to eat. Then you’re getting a shower.”

“I did rest.”

“Oh?” Slade asked. “And how did you come about to rest? Because I highly doubt you laid down and went to sleep.”

Dick’s face flushed as he looked away. “I passed out and fell off the bed after getting the inhibitor collar off.”

“Did you hit your head?”

“If I had a concussion, it’s gone by now,” Dick told him. “I...kinda stayed unconscious on the floor for two days.”

“Your family must be worried about you.”

Dick shook his head, closing his eyes and swaying in place as exhaustion took over. “Fight with B,” he mumbled, letting Slade help him lay down and curl up. “No one’s looking for me yet.”

“Get some rest then,” Slade ordered. “You need it.”

“Stay?” Dick begged, peeling one eye open as Slade stood. “Please. I-I need to know you’re not dead.”

Slade gave a soft sigh before climbing into bed and pulling Dick close. “Don’t worry, pretty bird,” he murmured. “I’m not going anywhere for a long time.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know your thoughts!!!


End file.
